Deadpool Variant

Sorry for the long break between posts. I ran out of usable pics from my first large photoshoot and haven't had time to shoot any new ones. This summer I borrowed my mother's nice camera, but I can't figure out how to keep the flash from turning on automatically, so all my pics are nice and bright...even when I wanted shadows. I'll figure it out.

I'm in the process of trying to shrink my collection by selling many of my figures on ebay. In this move, I'm trying to make some painful cuts, because if I kept every figure I liked...I wouldn't get rid of any! This is one of the figures I really like, but that just didn't make the cut to stick around.


This is the X-Men Costume Variant Deadpool. I bought him at Toys R Us in a 2-pack with a very cool-looking Thunderbird figure. As much as I like this figure, specifically the sculpting on his mask, he's kind of hard to stand up and I was really hoping to get the classic red & black suit. Therefore, he's outta here. Before he gets shipped out, I had to take some pics first. That is one of the best head sculpts I've seen in a while! Look at the detailed expression on his face even though he wears a mask! Very nicely done.

New MOTU Classics - Clawful!

One of my ever-growing collections is the Masters of the Universe Classics. Mattel has taken the classic He-Man toys from the early 1980's and reimagined them as better toys, with the Classic look. You can't find these toys in stores though. You can only buy them at www.MattyCollector.com and they only release one figure a month. Generally the new figure sells out less than 30 minutes after being posted. That's why on the 15th of the month I'm poised with 3-5 browser screens open just trying to get in to buy one.

This year there haven't been many figures released that I wanted to buy. This month was the exception, as July brought the return of Clawful, Skeletor's strong, but dim-witted lobster warrior! They used the same basic body as they did for Buzz-Off and Whiplash, but they set him apart by adding a detailed chest piece, great paint applications, a new shield, and of course, his signature HUGE claw! I'm going to shut up now and let the pictures do the talking for me. Just for fun I dug out the old Clawful from 1984 so you can compare them side-by-side. Enjoy!

This one's for Jeff.

I was looking through my ready-to-post figure pix and I saw a few that tied in with a conversation I had with my friend, Jeff, the other day, so I'm going to post those.

First up is the super cool Marvel Select Anti-Venom. He is a symbiote character that spawned from the Venom suit, although strangely enough, the original Venom (Eddie Brock) is the man beneath the new Anti-Venom suit. Instead of killing, Anti-Venom has strange healing powers. Spider-Man still doesn't like to hang out with him though because when he's around, Spidey gets "healed" of his spider-like powers, making him a powerless guy in a full body stocking. No one wants that. This is a great figure that really captured the jagged, angular artwork of John Romita Jr., the artist who brought AV to life.


Next is one of my favorite Marvel Legends figures, Colossus. Hard to find a better figure than this one. Check him out in all his Russian majesty! There's a new Marvel Select Colossus coming out later this year, but the vote is still out on whether or not it will be an improvement over this figure or not.


Stay tuned. I have been doing a lot of custom Green Lanterns lately and hope to be hoping pics of the very soon. Thanks!

Foosball is NOT the devil, Mama!

These are some pictures of an unfinished project from a decade ago. I took a standard foosball table and was in the process of painting each figure on the board as a different superhero. I got busy with life and it has spent most of the past 7 years or so in my sister's attic. Last time I was in Tulsa I took this pics to remember it by, since I gave her the okay to find it a new home.

I finished the "hero" team and painted 2 figures on the "villain" team, but never completed the whole table. I tried to pick characters that would work well on that area of the soccer field. I had the big guy, Hulk, as my goalie with stretchy Mr. Fantastic and Green Lantern as his defensemen. I had my my all-around talent in the middle of the field with Human Torch, Cyclops, Captain America, Batman & Robin. Then on offense I put my fast guys, Flash, Superman & Spidey.





I had the villain team picked out, but only got as far as painting Carnage and Magneto on offense. This is a fun idea that I may revisit someday, but it is years away. This was a very time-consuming project.

Return to Eternia!

Hey toy fans! It's time for some more Masters of the Universe fun. I'm posting pics from my favorite ongoing collection, the Masters of the Universe Classics by MattyCollector.com. The whole point of this line of figures was to remake the classic He-Man figures of the 80's but to make them better. As you can see in the picture, they're doing a great job! Another way these are special is, you won't find them at Walmart. No sir, these figures are released on MattyCollector.com on a once-a-month basis. If you aren't online in the the first 15 minutes or less when a new figure is released, you're probably out of luck. Luckily for me they do re-release figures after a year or so, which is how I recently purchased Evil-Lyn. She sold out in less than 4 minutes originally!!!

Enough jibba-jabba! Show the figures already!

Tough Guys

You're only getting one picture with this post, because in this case, one picture is enough. Man, this one turned out GOOD! The lighting, the positioning, the awesome sculpts...I think this is one of the best shots so far.

Wolverine is a Marvel Legends unmasked variant. This Cyclops figure is one of the better figures put out by Hasbro since they took over Marvel Legends from Toybiz. These are two of my favorite figures and are inspired by my favorite X-Men comic series of all time, "The Astonishing X-Men" issues 1-25.

Group photo! Everyone get in close!

So far I've mostly been focusing in single figures and then, mostly from the waste up. To break it up a bit (and to show off more of my collection) this post is all about the group shots!

First up is Tony Stark and the Iron Man Collection! I created this Tony figure using an extra Stark head and the body from a Harvey Dent Dark Knight movie figure. Behind him you can see a wide range of armor that represents nearly every era of the character. My favorite is probably the huge "Hulkbuster" armor in the back. You can see him peeking over Tony's left shoulder.



"In brightest day, In blackest night..." here come the Green Lanterns! I want to take a more definitive group photo of this collection, but for now this will have to do. You can see my GL Spidey is getting along well with the other Lanterns.



Lastly, these are my Marvel Heroes. The X-Men Variant Deadpool is front and center, with X-Men behind him on the left and Avengers behind him on the right. Since my figures are on glass shelves, I took a fun one from above as well.

Wolverine, Beastman, and ... Spidey in Eternia???

Here are a few more fun figure pics played around with in Photoshop and posted for your viewing pleasure.

First off is Wolverine, up close & personal. This figure is the unmasked variant Wolverine from the Marvel Legends line and it is possibly one of my favorite figures. The sculpt is a perfect likeness from my favorite X-men comic, Astonishing X-Men. Since Hasbro took over the Marvel brand from ToyBiz, they don't make 'em like this anymore, folks. Check out that detail! I'm sure I'll post more of this figure later on. He's the coolest.



Here is Beastman from the fantastic new Masters of the Universe Classics line from Mattel, available only from www.mattycollector.com. Mattel has taken the basic designs from the classic toy line and reimagined them all as better figures. I'll have a lot more pics from this line of figures, but Beastman gets the first post. Skeletor will be pleased...for once.



And here is...Spidey in Grayskull?!? I ended up with 2 Spideys that I couldn't decide between displaying with my collection at my office, so this guy hangs out in Castle Grayskull with my Masters collection.

Up Next...Cap, Spidey & She-Hulk

Here are a few more pics from my collection, jazzed up in photoshop a bit. The Captain America is from Marvel Legends Series 1 (old school cap!), Spider-Man is from a Marvel Legends Spidey boxed set, and She-Hulk is a Marvel Select figure, who I just bought early this year.

There have been several Captain America figures released since this one, but none have been as classic as this one. He's really the perfect Cap figure, in my opinion.


Likewise, it's actually hard to find a really good Spidey figure. When I was a kid Spidey was IMPOSSIBLE to find. I would check the toy stores every time I visited my grandmother in the booming metropolis of Wichita Falls, TX, but the best I could find was a Deadpool figure (he kinda looked like Spidey and that was as close as I could get). These days it's the opposite. You can find Spider-man figures anywhere and Deadpool figures will cost you $50! Anyway, this Spidey is a pretty good one. Great sculpt, good articulation, and the webs are actually part of his sculpt, not painted on.


I've been contemplating buying this She-Hulk for about 4-5 years, since she first came out. Shulkie is probably my favorite female comic book character, but her toys have traditionally been awful. This one is dead-on to her current look in the comics, but they gave her a really hard pose to work with. I finally found a really good deal for her on ebay this year though, and couldn't pass it up. Glad I didn't. She's a great figure.

Custom Spidey-Lantern!

No photoshop tricks here, folks, just a few pics of my new custom Green Lantern figure....Spider-Man! Due to a situation with an ebay seller, I ended up with 2 GL figures of the same character. I took the worse figure of the two and pulled off his head. I had a few extra Spidey heads laying around so I tried a few on to find the best fit and got to work. I used model car enamel for the first time on this project. I had tried doing action figure customs in the past with standard acrylic paints and they always chipped off. This paint goes on smooth and looks great when it dries, but it was awful to work with. Very runny and hard to control. The GL-Spidey emblems on his chest and back definitely don't look professional quality, but as hard as the paint was to control, I'm proud of how they turned out. I ended up painting all the green and white parts of this figure, as my enamel was very glossy and I though that would look nice against the dull black paint of the original GL figure. All in all, I'd say he's a success. He fits right in with my GL collection. I'll have to post pics of my whole group soon. I keep hoping to come across the brand new Kyle Rayner figure at Walmart, but no luck so far.

First Pics

Here are a few fun pics to get us started. How about some Rorschach, Juggernaut, and some Skrulls? Rorschach is from the Watchmen movie figure line (that's NightOwl and Napoleon Dynamite behind him). Juggernaut is my newest find and is a Marvel Select figure (he's massive). The Skrulls are a mix of Marvel Select, Marvel Legends, and Marvel Universe figures (the ones in focus are Marvel Select).

What's the Deal?

So, I have this action figure collection that I really like. I also like to have some fun with a digital camera and try to find some fun images and what not. Sometimes the two meet up. That's why I made this blog. I'm taking pictures of some of my favorite figures, playing around with them in photoshop some, and posting them right here. I hope someone out there enjoys these pics as much as I do.

I thought this would be a fun first picture. This is my 18" Spidey and equally tall Galactus. Spidey has something like 70 points of articulation (which has to be some kind of record) and the G-Man has light-up action and says fun phrases like "Behold...the WORLD EATING MACHINE!".